为什么伟大的创业家都是伟大的故事手_【微文阅读推荐】

本文来自Benchmark的合伙人Bill Gurley的博客。很多人融资不喜欢写演示稿，Bill告诉你，不写演示稿的人难以说好一个故事，而伟大的故事手有不公平的竞争优势。

My partners and I have noticed an interesting trend over the past few years: an increase in the number of entrepreneurs who prefer to pitch us without the use of a presentation deck. On one hand, this is totally understandable. Many believe that PowerPoint decks are emblematic of the type of bureaucracy disparaged in Dilbert cartoons. Others want to appear “casual” and “conversational” and view the presentation as overly formal. But, going deck-less can be a risky move, and here is why. Investors are not solely evaluating your company’s story. They are also evaluating your ability to convey that story. Efficiently communicating your strategy, business model, and competitive differentiation is required for many critical things you will do as a company.

我的合伙人和我已经注意到，在过去几年中出现了一个有趣的趋势：越来越多的创始人向我们融资的时候不使用演示稿。一方面，这是完全可以理解的。许多人认为PowerPoint就像Dilbert卡通里贬低的官僚主义的典型。其他人希望能够“随意点”和“对话”，而演示稿显得过于正式了。但是，不使用演示稿可能是一个危险的举动。为什么？投资者并不仅仅评估公司的故事，他们也评估你表达故事的能力。有效地传达你的战略、商业模式和竞争优势对公司要做的许多关键事情而言是必须的。

Can you raise money without a standard slide presentation? Sure. Can you have a great investor meeting that is purely conversation? Absolutely. But it is important to separate the possible from the optimal. If you are the next Google and everyone knows that you are in the driver’s seat, you should certainly do as you please. But if you are one of the thousands and thousands of startups that merely want to have an optimal fund raising process, I highly recommend that you develop a killer presentation.

没有一个标准的演示文档你可以募到钱吗？当然。你可以有一个很棒的纯粹是聊天的投资人会议吗？绝对可以。但是，重要的是你要区分什么是可能，什么事最优。如果你是下一个谷歌，每个人都知道你是在驾驶员座上，你当然可以想怎么做就怎么做。但如果你是只是成千上万的创业公司中的一个，仅仅想有一个最佳募资过程，我强烈建议你做一个杀手级的演示稿。

Here are six reasons why good presentation decks are impactful:

为什么好的演示稿具有如此的影响力，原因有六：

Importance of Narrative – Last year I was turned on to an amazing book by Jonathan Gottschall titled The Storytelling Animal. Gottschall explains how storytelling plays a critical role in each and every human’s life. The purpose of a presentation deck is to enable entrepreneurs to effectively tell the story of their business. In many ways it’s like a structured scientific proof. You want to walk the listener through an argument as to why this is going to be an amazing business. The goal is to bring the investor to the VC equivalent of Q.E.D. A well-organized deck will gradually transport the listener to the desired conclusion – “this will be a great investment.” A rambling free-speech conversation is much less likely to achieve this goal.

叙事逻辑的重要性 - 去年我看了Jonathan Gottchall的一本很棒的书：讲故事的动物。 Gottschall阐述了说故事在我们每个人的一生中如何之关键。演示稿的目的是为了让创业者能够有效的讲述自己创业的故事。在许多方面，它就像一个结构化的科学论证。你想通过让听众理解论据来相信为什么这将是一个了不起的企业。我们的目标是把投资者带到内心认为“证明完毕”的状态。一个组织良好的演示稿会慢慢把听众带到想要的结论：这将是一个巨大的投资。而散漫的自由交谈不太可能实现这一目标。

Controlling the Cadence – When you have a single hour with investors, you want to use your time wisely and ensure that you deliver all your key points. The organized deck helps you control the tempo and guarantee that you make all your arguments, sequentially, in the time allotted. Once again, this is like a structured proof. You want your arguments to build towards a conclusion in a systematic way. For this same reason, you should also avoid jumping around in the deck (another common occurrence, especially from entrepreneurs with decks that are too large). It might seem to make sense to jump to another slide to give the investor an immediate answer, but this takes you off your game and out of the flow you intended. If the question is answered later in the deck, tell the listener you will discuss it later and postpone answering the question.

控制节奏 - 当你与投资者有一个小时，你要明智地使用你的时间，并确保你表达了你所有关键点。有组织的演示稿帮助你控制节奏，并保证你能在规定的时间里顺序完成所有的论点。再说一次，这就像结构化的证明。你希望你的论点以系统化的方式直达结论。因此，你应该避免在演示稿上跳来跳去（这也是另一普遍的现象，尤其是创业者的文档太大的时候）。跳到某一张幻灯片给投资者一个立即的回答似乎有道理，但是这会把你带出游戏，打断你的表达状态。如果问题在文档的后面有回答，告诉听众你后面会讨论，推迟回答问题。

Numeracy – You will not find a single definition of “entrepreneur” that does not include the word “business.” Startups are businesses, and businesses run on numbers. Even if you are just starting your company it’s useful to have numeric analysis. It may simply be an expense analysis, or a detailed pricing model, or a TAM (total available market) analysis. If you are post launch, it might involve a viral coefficient discussion or a cohort analysis. If you are post-revenue, it should unquestionably include a financial statement and forward forecast. The one thing your presentation should not be is numberless. It’s nearly impossible to convey complex numerical arguments with only words. Charts, graphs, and tables are orders of magnitude more efficient at this task. The best entrepreneurs I have worked with are all intensely focused on the numbers.

数字- 你不会找到任何一个关于“创业家”的定义不包括商业。创业公司就是商业，商业总是基于数字。即使你是刚开始的公司，数字分析也非常有用。这个分析可能是成本分析，或具体的定价模型，或可获得市场分析。如果你的公司已经成立，分析可能会包括病毒传播系数讨论，或者客户群分析。如果你的公司已经到了收入阶段，就应该毫无疑问包括财务报表和未来的财务预测。你的演示稿唯一不能少的就是数字。用语言很难去表达复杂的数字论据。图表、图形和表格（由强而弱）表达更为有效。我合作过的最好的创业者都强烈地专注于数字。

Storytelling Never Ends – As CEO you are the company’s number one salesperson and storyteller. You will spend a large portion of your time recruiting. You will raise more money at later stages. You will do business development meetings. You will take meetings with large customers and prospects. You will need to motivate your employees, and you will (hopefully) be invited to speak at important industry conferences. It is highly unlikely you will do all those things without a structured presentation deck. One-off speeches will have less efficiency and impact. As your company’s “storyteller-in-chief,” it is important for you to be great at this technique. And it’s a skill where practice really impacts performance. So you should start practicing as soon as you possibly can. VCs believe that better storytellers make better entrepreneurs.

讲故事从来没有完 - 作为CEO，你是公司的头号销售人员和讲故事的人。你会花很大一部分时间招聘。您将在公司后期筹集更多的钱。你会开业务发展会议。您将参加与大客户和潜在客户的会议。你需要激励你的员工，你会应邀在重要行业会议上发言。做这些事情，没有结构化的演示稿，几乎是不可能的。一次性的演讲效果和影响都比较有限。作为公司的“首席故事官”，擅长演说技巧很重要。这是一个只要不断练习就能改善表现的技巧。所以，只要有可能，你应该立即开始练习。风险投资家相信，能更好地讲故事的人才能成为更好的创业家。

The Process Itself Is Useful – The process of crafting the story of your company for the first time can be a cathartic experience. As you and your co-founders start to lay out things like positioning, business model and pricing assumptions, market focus, and key recruiting priorities, you will likely find that not everyone is on the same page. Developing a presentation deck gives you a great forum to nail those things down and to ensure that everyone is working with a common purpose. You will also find that some people are more creative than others at cramming the key parts of a presentation into 20-25 slides (don’t do more than 25) and delivering a very persuasive structured story for your company. The first version will not be great. Show it to your internal team, show it to a few outsiders, get feedback, and iterate. It’s a process. If your team is new to this, I recommend reading Presenting To Win: The Art of Telling Your Story by Jerry Weissman.

过程本身也非常有用的 - 第一次描绘你公司的故事就像是吃了泻药一般。当你和你共同创始人开始描绘诸如定位、商业模式和定价假设，市场重点和关键招聘的优先级的时候，你可能会发现，并不是每个人都在同一页上。开发一个演示稿，可以给你一个平台，把那些东西都确定下来，保证每个人都在为一个共同的目的奋斗。你还会发现，有些人比其他人更有创造力，能把一个演示的关键部分塞进20-25页幻灯片（不要超过25页），为公司打造一个很有说服力的结构化的故事。第一个版本通常不会很好。把它展示给你的内部团队，展示给少量外部人，获得反馈，然后反复。这是一个过程。如果你的团队对这个过程不熟悉，我建议你阅读Jerry Weissman写的“演示致胜：讲故事的艺术”。

Be Like Steve – Take to YouTube and do some searches for the very best entrepreneurial CEOs. Search for ‘Jeff Bezos presentation,’ or ‘Marc Benioff presentation,’ or ‘Elon Musk presentation‘ or ‘Steve Jobs presentation,’ and you will see that they universally use some form of presentation deck to guide their delivery. I have also seen modern day entrepreneurial leaders like Brian Chesky and Travis Kalanick speak at investor conferences, confidently leveraging the power of a deck. If you choose to freestyle without a deck when so many of the greats make it a normal practice, you risk leaving the impression that either (a) you don’t have the skills to produce a killer presentation, or (b) you are simply indifferent to why it is important. Neither is a good impression to leave with investors.

像史蒂夫一样 - 到YouTube上搜索一些最优秀的创业家。搜索“Jeff Bezos演讲”，或“Marc Benioff 演讲”，”或“伊隆·马斯克演讲“”或“史蒂夫·乔布斯演讲”。你会看到，他们普遍使用某种形式的演示稿来指导他们。我也看到现在的创业公司的领导人像Brian Chesky （Airbnb）和Travis Kalanick（Uber）在投资者会议上发言，满怀自信地利用演示稿的力量。如果您选择不使用演示稿自由发挥，而有那么多的伟大创业家都使用它，你可能冒风险留给别人的印象是（a）你不具备写一个杀手级演示稿的能力或（b）你对如此重要的东西无动于衷。任何一个，对投资人都不是什么好印象。

There is one situation where meeting without a presentation deck is warranted. If you have never met the potential investor and are unsure you want to share your data with this individual, then you have a very valid reason not to go through a detailed presentation. In this case, I would suggest that you make it clear up front that you view this as a “get-to-know-you” meeting and that you will not be diving deep on the business at this time. This will avoid having mismatched expectations.

有一种情况，没有演示稿就参加会议室可以的。如果你从来没有遇见过潜在投资者而且不确定要与这个人分享你的数据，那么你有理由不一页页的过详细的演示稿。在这种情况下，我建议你说清楚你认为这个会议只是见面认识一下，这次不会深入的讨论业务。这可以避免互相的期望不一致。

If you are lucky enough to grow your company from Series A to Series B to Series C, and on to hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue and a successful IPO, you will need to tell your company’s story in high-stakes situations over and over and over again. Because of this, venture capitalists place huge positive weight on how good you are at this skill. The great storytellers have an unfair competitive advantage. They are going to recruit better, they will be darlings in the press, they are going to raise money more easily and at higher prices, they are going to close amazing business developer partnerships, and they are going to have a strong and cohesive corporate culture. Perhaps more to the point, they are more likely to deliver a positive investment return.

如果你足够幸运，能从A轮到B轮到C轮，实现数亿美元的收入，并成功上市，你需要在很多高风险的场合，一遍又一遍讲诉你的公司的故事。正因为如此，风险投资人才如此看重你是否拥有这项重要的技能。伟大的故事手有不公平的竞争优势。他们将招聘的更好，他们将是媒体的宠儿，他们会更容易以较高的价格筹集资金，他们将赢得惊人的业务合作伙伴，他们将有一个强大和有凝聚力的企业文化。也许更重要的是，他们更可能带来出色的投资回报。

译者：戴汨愉悦资本创始合伙人（midai@joycapital.com.cn)

愉悦资本是新一代的VC基金，由刘二海、李潇、戴汨创立，我们是创始人也是投资经理；愉悦资本，创始人和创始人对话。